Offers advice on menu planning, and shares recipes for spiced beverages, appetizers, snacks, chutneys, salads, sauces, vegetables, rice, breads, and desserts The latest in a slew of similar cookbooks, like Chandra Padmanabhan's Dakshin: Vegetarian Cuisine from South India (LJ 4/15/94) and Ruth Law's Indian Light Cooking (LJ 4/15/94), this book emphasizes vegetarian cookery. Batra grew up in New Delhi but is now a cooking teacher in California. She offers not only authentic traditional Indian dishes but also recipes inspired by the produce at her farmer's market, her American friends and students, and a variety of ethnic cuisines. In addition to a delicious array of chutneys, for example, she includes a chapter on intriguing sauces, not usually treated as separate entities in Indian cooking. Cilantro Mashed Potatoes (a current American obsession) and Rice with Peas and Tomatoes, inspired by a favorite pasta, mingle with classic dishes like Nine Jewel Vegetables. Recommended for most collections. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. Batra makes a point of demystifying Indian food for Americans who find it "exotic" and somehow intimidating. She provides some wonderful sample menus and fully explains a set of essential ingredients. She then launches into a glorious series of recipes for various masalas and chutneys. Vegetarian cuisine really is limitless, especially vegetarian Indian dishes: Batra has created more than 250 luscious recipes. She explains exactly how a samosa is folded and how masalas are used and provides enticing and unexpected recipes for all kinds of salads and dressings, flatbreads, pastries, and casseroles. There are dozens of rice dishes, uses for cheese and yogurt, and recipes for turnovers and fritters, barbecued cheese and veggie skewers, and, of course, desserts. Perfect for both beginners and aficionados. Donna Seaman